ISLAMABAD, April 6: The European Commission (EC) has committed 2.5 million Euros under the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights for women and children's rights in Pakistan. This was stated by the head of EC delegation to Pakistan, Ilkka Uusitalo, at the launching ceremony of the project here on Tuesday.

The project will be implemented by the Greek Centre for Strategic Planning and Development - Kessa Dimitra. Two other projects have also been approved under the same call for proposals, which will be launched later, he added.

"In implementing its human rights policy, the European Union (EU) recognizes the importance of contributions made by international and regional NGOs to civil society and for development of a democracy that upholds political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights," Mr Ilkka said.

The European initiative for democracy and human rights was created through the European Parliament in 1994, which brought together a series of budget headings, specifically dealing with the promotion of human rights, he said.

All activities to support human rights, democratization and conflict prevention are carried out primarily in partnership with NGOs and international organizations.

The partners eligible for financing are regional and international organizations, NGOs, national, regional and local authorities, official agencies, community-based organizations, public and private sector institutes and operators, he said.

"In Pakistan, we are funding human rights projects under macro and micro projects," he said. The macro projects are identified through calls for proposals with an EC contribution of not less than 300,000 Euros, which is implemented by civil society operators, including local authorities, he said.

Under the macro projects, programmes address issues such as awareness of human rights, facilitation of discussion within civil society about reform of legislation in view of human rights and problems pertaining to existing legal systems and it abuse; increasing the effectiveness of the judiciary and legal sector in enforcement of laws protecting human rights; fight against violence and torture including honour killing, etc.

Micro projects are carried out with the financial assistance of 50,000 Euro, directly administrated by the EC delegations in the countries concerned. The projects are awarded directly to local NGOs through local call for proposal.

"In Pakistan we had a first call for proposal for human rights micro projects last year and in a couple of weeks we will be announcing the distribution of 500,000 Euro to 12 local NGOs to support their projects related to preventing violence against women," Mr Ilkka said. At the same time, the EC will be launching a new call for proposals. This time the total value being Euro 1 million, he added.